Post #1326

“In Buddhism, purification is a science based on understanding the psychomechanics of karma, or action-the law of cause and effect-and entails the application of what are called the four opponent powers. Sometimes referred to as "confession," Buddhist purification is very different from the Christian conception of the term, although parallels certainly exist. Every action, whether physical, verbal, or mental, leaves an imprint on consciousness, like a seed planted in a field. When the conditions are right, this imprint ripens into an experience. Positive imprints, or "good" karma, result in happiness; negative imprints, or "bad" karma, bring suffering. Every action has four aspects that determine whether the action is complete or incomplete: motivation, object, performance, and completion. To be complete, the action of killing, for instance, would require the motivation, or intention, to kill; a sentient being as the object to be killed; performance of the action, either directly or indirectly, that is, doing it oneself or ordering someone else to do it; and completion of the action, with the other sentient being dying before the killer. If an action is complete in all four aspects, it becomes what is called a throwing karma, an action that can determine your state of rebirth by throwing you into one of the six samsaric realms. If one or more of the four branches is missing, the action becomes a completing karma, determining the quality of the experiences you will have in this and future lives. A completing karma brings three types of result: the result similar to the cause in experience, the result similar to the cause in habit, and the environmental result. Thus, a complete negative karma has four suffering results. For killing, these four could be rebirth in a hell, a short life plagued with illness, a tendency to kill other beings, and rebirth in a very dangerous place. Although all this applies equally to positive as well as negative actions, in the context of purification we focus on the latter. The four opponent powers work — and are all necessary — because each one counters one of the four negative karmic results. The first power-taking refuge and generating bodhichitta-is called the power of the object, or the power of dependence, and purifies the environmental result. It is called the power of dependence because our recovery depends upon the object that hurt us. For example, to get up after you have fallen over and hurt yourself, you depend upon the same ground that hurt you. Similarly, almost all the negative karma we create has as its object either holy objects or sentient beings. In order to purify it we take refuge in holy objects and generate bodhichitta for the sake of all sentient beings. The second power is the power of release, which counteracts the result similar to the cause in experience. The third power is the power of the remedy, which is the antidote to the throwing karma that cat.ises us to be reborn in the three lower realms. Finally, the fourth power is that of indestructible determination, by which we overcome our lifetime-to-lifetime tendency to habitually create negativities again and again. Thus, in neutralizing the four results of negative karma, the four opponent powers purify them completely, preventing us from ever having to experience their suffering results. This kind of explicit logic lies behind all Buddhist practice. The third power embraces many different kinds of remedy, from making prostrations to building stupas to reciting the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra to meditating on emptiness. Ideally, several of these are practiced simultaneously.” Nicholas Ribush